The World's Biggest Bing Crosby Fan
by Princess Oats 435
Summary: When Kirsten gets the flu after Chrismukkah, Ryan offers to stay home with her. KirstenRyan bonding.


It's finals week. Finals suck. So instead of studying like I probably should be, I wrote instead, because I need to at least keep my sanity through finals week. So review and let me know what you thought. Thanks!

Disclaimer: Neither Bing Crosby or the OC characters belong to me.

* * *

Ryan had never considered himself a Bing Crosby fan. In fact, he didn't think he had ever heard a Bing Crosby song in his life. His love of all things Bing started when Kirsten got the flu after Chrismukkah.

He and Seth were in the kitchen eating cereal when Sandy came in, his face tired and pinched.

"Is something wrong?" Ryan asked studying his foster father's face.

"Oh, Kirsten's sick," Sandy said. "I think she has the flu."

"Mom? Mom never gets sick," Seth argued. "Her immune system is iron clad." Sandy shrugged.

"I don't know what to tell you. She's sick. She's been throwing up all night and her temperature is over 100." He sighed and took a sip of coffee.

"Is she all right?" Ryan asked worried.

"Oh, she'll be fine. Plenty of fluids, and some rest and she'll be back on her feet in no time," Sandy assured him. "It's just that I have to go into the office today because we have investors coming in, and I can't leave Matt there by himself. I just hate to leave her alone." He said it pointedly and looked to his two boys.

"As much as I would like to help a brother out…and a mother I guess," Seth said. "I'm supposed to spend the whole day with Summer. So no playing nurse for me. Unless…" Seth was trying to turn over a new leaf and be more considerate and less selfish, and he knew that his mother was sick and that he should offer to stay home, but he feared his own health if he cancelled on Summer. He frowned and bit his lip, and was about to offer to stay anyway, when Ryan interrupted.

"I'll stay with her," he offered.

"Really? That'd be great kid, thanks." Sandy looked so relieved, and so did Seth for that matter, that it made giving up one of his last free days of the break up to stay with a puking Kirsten not seem like such a terrible burden. "I'm going to take her some orange juice and let her know that you'll be staying here with her. Thanks Ryan." Sandy poured a glass and hurried up the stairs to his bedroom.

"Have fun," Seth said jumping off the stool and placing his empty bowl in the sink. "I have to go meet Summer. Call me if you need anything?" Ryan nodded and Seth gave a little wave and left the kitchen. Sandy reappeared.

"She's sleeping right now, but I left her a note that you're here if she needs anything," Sandy told him. "I'll be home right after my meeting."

"Okay," Ryan answered.

"Thanks again," Sandy said for what must have been the third or fourth time. Ryan could see that he didn't want to leave Kirsten here. "I better go." Sandy grabbed his briefcase and disappeared leaving Ryan alone. He figured he better stay in the main house, so he turned on the PlayStation, with the volume on low in case she called for him. He had been playing for less than twenty minutes when he heard a loud thump from the direction of Kirsten and Sandy's room. He dropped his controller and rushed up to their room. Kirsten was climbing up from the floor, and he hurried over to help her up.

"Thanks sweetie," she said. "I went to stand up and got a little dizzy." Kirsten looked terrible, Ryan couldn't help but notice. Her eyes were glassy and slightly swollen, her nose was red, and her hair was matted to her head.

"What do you need?" Ryan asked. "Sandy had to go to the office."

"I saw the note," Kirsten said with a small smile and gestured to the table next to her. Her face paled and she reached down for the bucket that Sandy had placed next to the bed. Ryan had barely enough time to react and held her hair back for her as she threw up.

"Oh God," she moaned as she sat back against the pillows. Ryan ran into the bathroom and got her a wet towel, which she gratefully accepted.

"You okay? Can I get you anything?" Ryan asked.

"No, thank you," Kirsten said. She started to get up to clean out the bucket, when Ryan grabbed it off of her.

"I'll clean it," he said.

"No, it's gross. It's my puke, you shouldn't have to clean it," Kirsten argued trying to take the bucket back from him.

"Seriously Kirsten, lay down, you're sick, I can clean this up for you," he ignored her protests and cleaned the bucket in their bathroom. He hated to admit that he was used to this. He used to have to clean up after Dawn, only she tended to miss the bucket, and he would have to scrub the carpet. And he wanted to take care of Kirsten. He carried it back out and placed it beside her. Her eyes were closed when he walked in, but she opened them when he moved closer.

"Thank you honey," she said with a small smile.

"If you need anything, just let me know," Ryan offered.

"Thanks, but I think I'm just going to sleep for a little while," Kirsten assured him. "I'm okay." Ryan nodded, not convinced, but left her alone to sleep. He decided to grab some books and take them up and sit at the table in Kirsten and Sandy's room to keep an eye on her. Ryan ran out to the pool house and grabbed a few school books and headed back to the main house. The phone rang when he got inside and he dove for it before it woke up Kirsten.

"Hello?"

"Ryan, it's Sandy."

"Hey Sandy," Ryan said pouring himself something to drink.

"How's the patient?"

"She's okay. Throwing up still. She got a little dizzy, but other than that, I guess as well as she could be."

"Okay. I just wanted to check in. We're about to go into the meeting. So hopefully I'll be home in a couple hours."

"Take your time Sandy, we're fine here," Ryan insisted.

"Okay, I'll see you later," Sandy hung up and Ryan placed the phone back in the cradle. He grabbed his drink and his books and headed back upstairs. Looking over at Kirsten, who was asleep, her mouth open slightly, he couldn't help but laugh. This was the woman who he had thought was so formidable his first weekend. And Sandy was right. She definitely snored, although Ryan thought that this might just be because she was sick. He would give her the benefit of the doubt. But still, she certainly looked comical. He saw her shiver, and he walked over and pulled the blankets up around her. Ryan touched her forehead and frowned at how warm it was. It just strengthened his resolve to stay up in their bedroom with her just in case. He settled himself down at the table and spread out his work.

He had been working for a little over an hour when he heard her moan.

"Sandy," she moaned. "Sandy." Ryan got up and walked over to her.

"Kirsten, Sandy had to go to work," he said softly. "What do you need?"

"So hot, so hot," she repeated. He touched her skin and almost flinched. She threw off the covers and started to immediately shiver. Ryan pulled the blankets back up over top of her, but she started to moan again. "So hot. Who turned on the sauna?" Her eyes were still closed, and Ryan wondered if she normally talked in her sleep. "I told you Julie, I told you that I didn't want another spa weekend!" Ryan didn't know what to do, but went into the bathroom and got a cool cloth to place on her forehead.

"Kirsten?" He shook her gently, but got no response.

"Sandy! Sandy, it's so hot. Not tonight Sandy, it's too hot in here." Now Ryan really wanted to wake her up. He didn't need to learn anything about his foster parents' sex life.

"Kirsten?" He repeated. Ryan was starting to worry. "Kirsten, please?" Why had he offered to stay home with her? He could be off with Marissa, or…since she was spending most of her time with Johnny lately, he could have been a third wheel with Seth and Summer. He reached for the phone and dialed Sandy's number, only to have his secretary tell Ryan that he couldn't be reached, but she could leave him a message after he left the meeting.

"Can you please get him?" Ryan asked.

"Ryan?" Kirsten's voice was raspy and Ryan hung up the phone and turned to Kirsten. "Can you get me some water? I'm so warm." Ryan nodded and ran downstairs to the kitchen. He grabbed a bottle of her Evian and ran back up.

"Here," he said thrusting it towards her.

"Thank you sweetie," she said. "I'm so warm."

"What should I do?" He asked. "Do you need some Tylenol? Doesn't that bring down fevers?" He vaguely remembered Kirsten telling him that the last time that he got sick.

"It hasn't been enough time since the last time I took it," Kirsten said shaking her head. "God, I'm so warm and achy." She paused and looked thoughtful, and then smiled slightly. "When I was little, when I was sick my mom used to sit with me and we'd watch _White Christmas_, even when it wasn't Christmas, because it was my favorite movie, and then she would sing for me. Have you ever seen it?" Ryan shook his head. "You should see it. There's this one song, it went something like, 'When you're tired, and you can't sleep, just count your blessings instead of sheep….'" Kirsten sighed. "I loved that song." She touched her hand to her forehead. "I'm so warm." Ryan took the cloth off her head and went to the bathroom to run it under cool water. He brought it back out to her.

"When I was little, and sick," he said pulling up a chair to sit next to her bed. "My mom used to sit and read to me. And she made this soup. It was really good soup. Chicken noodle. And she would run her hand through my hair and I used to feel so…safe." Kirsten watched his face as he remembered. She tended to think that Ryan had no good memories of his mother, but that clearly wasn't true. She struggled to think of Dawn as a good, stable mother. "And then we moved to Chino after my dad went to jail, and well…she barely took care of herself let alone us." He shook his head, trying to dislodge the memory. "But you should get some more rest." Kirsten nodded and sunk lower into the pillows and blankets and closed her eyes.

* * *

Kirsten woke up to the sounds of music. She recognized it immediately.

"Bing Crosby," she said softly. She opened her eyes, and her head was still pounding, and she knew that she was going to be sick momentarily, but she couldn't help but smile. Ryan was sitting at the table again, pouring over a thick book, and his laptop was sitting on the table playing the music.

"Hey," he said. "How are you feeling?" She answered his question by leaning over the side of the bed and throwing up, but when she came back up she had a slight smile on her face.

"I love this song," she said wistfully.

"So I've heard," Ryan gave her a small smile back. "Can I get you anything?" She shook her head.

"No thank you." She shivered and he instinctively grabbed the blanket from off the end of the bed.

"Here," he said pushing it at her.

"I'm so warm," she argued.

"Can you take the medicine yet?" Ryan asked. Kirsten glanced over at the clock and nodded.

"Yeah, I can," she told him. He grabbed it for her and handed her the pills and a glass of water. The song started again and she looked at Ryan with a quizzical expression.

"It's on repeat," he explained. "I think I know it by heart now."

"And what do you think?" Kirsten asked.

"Not bad," Ryan replied. "His voice is…I don't know the right word."

"Soothing?" Kirsten offered, and Ryan nodded.

"Yeah, soothing." They sat in silence for a few minutes listening to the music when the phone rang. Ryan had placed it by him when he had called Sandy an hour or so earlier in a blind panic and answered it.

"Hello?"

"Ryan!" Sandy's voice sounded slightly panicked on the other end. "My secretary said you called and insisted that I call you the minute the meeting ended. What happened? Is Kirsten okay?"

"She's okay, her temperature is just up a little bit," Ryan answered. "She's awake now though if you want to talk to her."

"Yes, please," Sandy replied and Ryan handed the phone off to Kirsten. Ryan could only hear Kirsten's side of the conversation, but it sounded like Sandy was rushing home.

"Sandy, I'm okay…I mean, yes, I am feeling terrible…but we're doing okay here…take your time sweetie…okay…we'll see you in a little bit then." She hung up and sighed. "He's dotting the i's, and crossing the t's and he'll be home." Ryan nodded. "Do you want to hear some more Bing? They just don't make them like Bing anymore."

"Sure," he said.

"Downstairs where all the movies are? There's _White Christmas_. We don't watch it during the Chrismukkah season because Seth complains too much," Kirsten rolled her eyes.

"I'll be right back," Ryan told her and made his way down to the living room, located the movie and carried back upstairs. Kirsten's legs were over the side of the bed and though she was hacking up a lung she was about to get up.

"Whoa," Ryan said. "What are you doing?"

"Sandy and I don't have a television up here. We're going to have to watch it in the living room," Kirsten answered.

"No we don't. Get back in bed." Ryan grabbed his laptop, removed her barely eaten breakfast from the tray that was sitting on Sandy's side of the bed, placed it on the table and the laptop on top of the tray, and sat down next to Kirsten. "It's not the biggest screen, but it will save you from moving." Kirsten smiled and settled back against the pillows and Ryan made himself comfortable too. Like with any movie, and especially since she was sick, Kirsten almost immediately fell asleep.

"This is nice," she mumbled as she drifted off.

"Yeah," Ryan replied. "It is nice."

* * *

When Sandy rushed in forty minutes later, he heard music coming from his bedroom. Confused, he hurried upstairs to find his wife and Ryan fast asleep watching a movie. He picked up the laptop and moved it to the table and shut it off. He leaned over and placed a kiss on Kirsten's forehead and worried about how warm she was.

Ryan stirred, and a moment later his eyes fluttered open.

"Hey Sandy," he said quietly.

"Hey, thanks again for staying here with her," Sandy said with a smile.

"No problem. Her temperature got a little high, and she started talking in her sleep, and she kept throwing off her covers, but she took some more Tylenol only like right before the movie started and it seems to have kicked in." Sandy nodded.

"I can take over from here. Salvage the rest of your day," Sandy told him. Ryan nodded, and felt a little like he was abandoning Kirsten.

"She likes Bing Crosby. She was sleeping better when he was playing," Ryan said before he left the room. Sandy gave him a strange look, but nodded. "You can keep my laptop up here. All the Bing Crosby music I could find is on there. But she especially likes the one about sheep?"

"Thanks," Sandy said smiling. "I'll keep that in mind." Ryan nodded and closed the door gently behind him as he made his way back downstairs.

* * *

A few weeks later, long after Kirsten had gotten over the flu and Ryan and Seth returned to school, Kirsten came into the kitchen with a newspaper in her hand.

"Ryan, they're having a Bing Crosby night at the Manor Theater? The one that plays all kinds of old movies? They're playing _White Christmas_ among others. I didn't know…I mean if you're weren't busy on Thursday night…if you wanted to go with me?" Ryan nodded and smiled.

"Sure that would be great," he said.

"Great," Kirsten repeated with a grin. She poured herself a cup of coffee and left the kitchen.

"Dude, Bing Crosby?" Seth asked incredulously.

"What?" Ryan said. "Have you ever listened to him? He's really soothing."


End file.
